Comeback a-bubbling for hard cider

October 22, 2009 12:00 AM

By Greg Kitsock Special to The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- "Last year, they had a great crop of Kingston Black," home-brewer Rick Garvin says as he plucks purplish-red fruit from one of 3,000 semi-dwarf apple trees at the Distillery Lane Ciderworks in Jefferson, Va. "It makes a nice, balanced single-variety cider."

Mr. Garvin, a McLean, Va., resident, meant hard cider -- the alcoholic kind. In America, we have to use an adjective to distinguish it from sweet cider, which is fresh, unfiltered apple juice. But in England, where every 12th pint slung over the bar contains cider, the term always denotes strong drink.

Some of the best apples for making hard cider are not the kind you find in a supermarket.

Dosed with packets of yeast and allowed to ferment for a few weeks, the juice transforms into a lightly effervescent, pleasantly tart alcoholic beverage that our colonial forbears likened to champagne.

During the 18th century, American adults imbibed an average of 34 gallons of hard cider a year, according to W.J. Rorabaugh's book "The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition." Cider consumption plummeted rapidly in the 19th century, giving way first to bourbon whiskey, then to lager beer and soft drinks. It didn't help that cider's popularity was strongest in the countryside, where Prohibitionist sentiments held sway.

After a century and a half as an anachronism, hard cider is staging a comeback. Sales of commercial cider are up 14.4 percent so far this year, making it the fastest-growing segment in the alcoholic beverage industry, says industry analyst Bump Williams.

Mr. Fredlund estimates that Americans consume 4 million cases of hard cider a year. That translates into about 290,000 barrels, the output of a large craft brewery. But that's still a major step upward from the paltry 145,000 cases sold in 1990.

In 1991, the Joseph Cerniglia Winery (as Green Mountain was originally called) phased out its high-alcohol apple wine sold in Mason jars in favor of a lighter, more accessible beverage. Mr. Cerniglia decided to package his new Woodchuck brands in six-packs and kegs, and reduce the alcohol content to a more beerlike 5 percent by volume.

Woodchuck set the pattern for its imitators. E.&J. Gallo introduced its Hornsby's brands in 1995, and several breweries followed suit, including Boston Beer Co. with its HardCore line and, more recently, Harpoon Brewing Co. with its Harpoon Cider.

Today, Green Mountain is the Anheuser-Busch of the U.S. cider industry, accounting for 52 percent of domestic sales, by Mr. Fredlund's reckoning. Its Woodchuck ciders tend to be aromatic, rounded and fruity, dominated by the sweet, fragrant McIntosh apple.

European imports offer a drier, more complex alternative. Samuel Smith's Organic Cider from England is a pale straw gold, crisp and thirst-quenching, almost like a champagne. The Normandy region of France is noted for its fruity, bubbly, low-alcohol ciders. Organic Etienne Dupont has an apple blossom aroma, a tart and fruity flavor and a spritzy carbonation. By contrast, most U.S. ciders are lightly carbonated. Jaime Schier, Harpoon's quality control manager, explains that if the CO2 exceeds 1.2 volumes per liter -- less than half that of beer -- Uncle Sam levies a "crippling" sparkling wine tax.

In Pennsylvania, some hard ciders can be purchased at beer distributorships, but higher alcohol ones are sold in state Liquor Control Board stores.